A Brief History of Time (Ocarina of Time)

The ones for the Kokori Forest look pretty nice.

Episode 2: It’s the Great Deku Tree, Charlie Brown!

Now that we have a sword and shield, we’re ready to go visit the Great Deku Tree. But what’s this? Some chump is blocking the way.



Um…







This Charlie Brown-sounding freak is Mido. It seems that he has a thing for Saria, who in turn has a thing for Blondie, which in turn means Mido is a huge prick. Mido forces you to go get a sword and shield before meeting with the GDT which is basically OoT’s way of saying “Hey, fiddle with the controls until you get the hang of everything!” But we already did all that so we’re ready to move on.

After passing Mido, we run into our very first enemy.



Deku Babas come in two varieties: active and stationary. The one you see here is the stationary kind and is the weaker of the two. These Babas will simply stay still and wiggle around. If you get close to them, they’ll wiggle into you for half a heart of damage. One good thrust attack (forward and B while Z Targeting) will safely take them out.



The good thing about the stationary Babas is that they will always drop Deku Sticks, which are typically needed to solve puzzles. If you ever see a stationary Deku Baba around, you can bet there’s going to be a puzzle involving Deku Sticks nearby.





We finally make it to the Great Deku Tree, and it seems that all is not well. The GDT explains that the reason why Blondie has been having nightmares is because there’s a lot of evil floating around these days.





The GDT asks Blondie to eliminate the curse. Despite having no prior training in…well, anything, and having no knowledge of curses, Blondie agrees to help. He’s just a nice guy, I guess…? The GDT opens its mouth (?) and we have our first dungeon!

Inside The Great Deku Tree







Immediately upon entering the tree, we are accosted by some active Deku Babas. These enemies will lunge at you, but are still pretty damn weak. Simply guard their lunge and hit them once.



This will cause them to revert to the stationary Baba, where another hit will kill them. After killing the Baba, we are given our first batch of Deku Nuts.



Deku Nuts are possibly the most pointless item in the game. They…sort of work like a flash grenade. The idea is that you throw one near an enemy and it stuns or blinds them. The reality is that you throw one near an enemy and it doesn’t do a god damn thing. They’re useful in a few places, and they’re one of the few items Blondie can use regardless of his age (OMG spoilarz), but we won’t be using them much once we get some better equipment.

Hell, I probably won’t even use them when I don’t have better equipment anyway. They’re just that pointless.

After climbing up some vines on the wall to reach a higher area, we find our first batch of Skullwalltulas. Skullwalltulas are, appropriately enough, Skulltulas which cling to walls. We’ll be seeing plenty of these and other kinds of Skulltulas before the dungeon is through. The only way to eliminate Skullwalltulas is with the Slingshot we don’t have yet. We’ll be passing them for now.



But not before getting this dungeon’s map. The map is…uh, well, a map. A rudimentary version will now appear in the lower right of our HUD, but a more detailed version can be accessed from the start menu.



Blondie finds a door, and after passing through it, some steel bars close behind him. Get used to this. It happens a lot. I mean, a lot. Maybe every other room or so. Doors hate Blondie.



A Deku Scrub! Deku Scrubs are fairly harmless. Simply stand still, wait for them to shoot a Deku Nut out of their mouth at you, and then reflect it back with your shield. Thanks to my awesome skillz, I was able to wait until the last second and reflect this particular nut back. It was awesome; you should’ve seen it.

Some Deku Scrubs are actually Business Scrubs and will sell items to you once you hit them...usually at a significant mark-up. It can be helpful if you’re in a bind, though (see: next dungeon).



Others, like this one, will give you tips and hints once defeated.

Still others will not do anything because they’re god damned good for nothing freeloaders who still live at their parent’s place.



The Scrub’s tip explains how jumping works in OoT. Simply run off a ledge and you will jump. Yes, it seems suicidal…but apparently it’s not!

It’s also another great example of OoT’s innovations regarding control. As if Z Targeting and contextual button presses weren’t enough, now we have contextual movement control. The real brilliance of the system is that not only do buttons/movements serve multiple purposes but they do so in an extremely organic way. This is something that developers struggle with even today but OoT was doing it back in 1998.

It’s also how you solve this puzzle. Simply jump onto that brown block and jump off onto the ledge. This will net you…



The Slingshot! Hooray! Now we can kill the Skullwalltulas and climb up one more floor. The only problem is that there’s no way to get back…



Or is there? Oh Zelda, always teaching us how to properly use items within seconds of getting them. Will you ever change?



You may have noticed that when I was targeting the ladder, I was using Z Targeting and thus was in third person. If you hit the C Button you have the Slingshot assigned to while not in Z Targeting, you will go into a first person view. The Skullwalltulas are too far away to be Z Targeted, so this is how you have to kill them in order to proceed.



After climbing to the top floor, Blondie runs into his first regular Skulltula. These spiders a serious pain…not because they’re hard, but because they take forever to die. Here we see the Skulltula’s invulnerable side. If you wait a second, the Skulltula will rotate and his soft underbelly will be visible. One Deku Seed or one Jump Attack is enough to finish it off, but it really is annoying having to wait for it to expose itself before you can do anything.



Remember! Deku Sticks can be lit on fire and lighting torches is good! Congratulations! You’ve solved roughly 90% of the puzzles in this dungeon!



Worth noting in this room is our first Compass. Each dungeon has a Map and a Compass. The Compass reveals where all items are on the map. This will be the last time I make a big deal about the Map and Compass. Yes, they’re important…but not so important that I’m going to take time to make a big deal about each one I find.



Also in this room is a Gold Skulltula. Once killed, it leaves behind some sort of Token. I wonder what it does…?



Back in the main room, Blondie contemplates suicide. After deciding that all this b.s. wasn’t worth putting up with, Blondie jumped off from the highest floor in order to end it all.



Unfortunately, Blondie now has enough force from falling from such a great distance that he’s able to break the webbing on the first floor and land in a pool of water in the tree’s…um, basement I guess. Oops! Try again, Blondie!

This next puzzle is fairly simple. Light a torch, run over the slightly submerged platform, and burn some webbing.



This leads to another Deku Scrub with a hint that actually is extremely important. Twenty-three is number one!



Of course, it also would’ve been nice if he had told me that that eye works as a switch and is activated by being hit by a Deku Seed or Arrow. But, you know, whatever.



After another set of puzzles introduces us to the game’s diving mechanic (press A in water to dive) and the game’s pushing mechanic (press A near a block to grab it and then use the control stick to push/pull, push forward and A to climb on top of it), Blondie runs into the last enemy type we’ll see in this dungeon: the Gohma Larva. When they turn red, get ready to either block or dodge. Two hits or one Jump Attack will take care of them.



Fun Fact: You can see the larva hanging on the ceiling before they jump down!



After crawling through a hole, we end up back in the room we were in after Blondie attempted suicide. Only now we can push a block down into the water, which enables us to light a torch and then burn a piece of webbing in the ground.



This leads us to the three guardians the Deku Scrub spoke of earlier. Twenty-three is number one! After defeating the Scrubs in the proper order (middle, right, left), the Scrubs reveal how to beat the next boss.

But that’s okay; I already know how to do that.

Video Challenge: Parasitic Armored Arachnid Gohma

Let's kill our first boss, the stupidly easy giant spider Gohma!

The Game’s Entire Backstory



After completely demolishing Gohma, Blondie is transported via blue light back to the GDT. It’s never really explained what the blue light is or how it gets there, so just use your imagination.





I know that nose!

Video Challenge: Hyrule's Creation Myth

Let's learn how the world began!

Meanwhile, Back in Kokiri Forest!





The GDT explains that while we broke the curse, the curse is going to kill him anyway.

…Yeah, I don’t get it either. But more importantly, we need to stop The Nose from getting his hands on the Triforce. Our first step is to head to Hyrule Castle and try and meet with Princess Zelda.

Man, I hope that my efforts to stop The Nose won’t accidentally help him in any way.



Before passing away, the GDT gives us the greenest MacGuffin of them all: the Kokiri’s Emerald!

Like A Link to the Past before it, Ocarina of Time has you collect three mini-MacGuffins before you go about collecting the Legit MacGuffins in other dungeons. On the positive side of things, after collecting the three mini-MacGuffins, we’re given the first Legit MacGuffin.

Which all seems a bit silly, doesn’t it?



A single red leaf falls…



…and then he turns to stone? Damn, that’s some curse!



Let’s-a-go!

Next Time on A Brief History of Time:

After saying goodbye to long time semi-girlfriend Saria, Blondie heads to Hyrule Castle to meet with the Princess. Guest starring an underaged love interest, a giant owl, and three hundred billion skeletons.

Reader's Notice

I know I said I was planning roughly one update a week, and now I've done two in less than 24 hours. Please don't get used to this. I wrote the first two before Jan. 4th, so I had them ready to go. I simply can't keep up with updating every single day. I will be updating as much as possible though; you all have my word. I appreciate all the interest everyone is showing as well. I hope you all enjoy it.

And no, I won't be upgrading any textures or anything. Sorry Bill but this LP is already very time intensive. The last thing I need is to factor in technical problems for upgrading textures.

Speaking as president-for-life of the world, I would like to declare a moratorium on doors slamming shut behind you in video games. It's become a terrible cliche, and it usually makes no sense.

I probably played through this game three or four times before I found a decent use for the deku nuts, and I can't even remember what it is now.

They can also be shot down before they even drop with the slingshot or boomerang. The Master Quest remake of this dungeon is swarming with Gohma larvae, as I recall.

You recall semi-correctly (I don't know if "swarming" is the right word, but there are a lot more). It's a shame that they only show up in this one room during the regular version of this dungeon, since they're easily the most interesting enemies you face inside the Great Deku Tree.

It was nice of him not to just say "sand monkey."

I suppose bringing up the jumping thing again (seriously) would get me banned, wouldn't it?

I think that was one of the few times where a forum thread devolved into 'net screeching.

It's part of the curse, you see, because THAT WICKED MAN FROM THE DESERT knew that people walking through the Deku Tree's Vajay-jay would have to go through the doorways that... exist... in the Deku Tree's... vajay-jay... and, um, so he installed metal bars that'll keep the doors closed...

...why wouldn't he keep them closed from the outside, thereby preventing Link from getting into the rooms in the first place...?

...

Are you there God? It's me, psyduck.jpg

I like the video/picture mixture. I have half a mind to play these games again.

Heh heh, you've got the Deku Tree's nuts.

Can anyone seriously explain how come the Deku Tree has torches inside him? Either they're pre-existing, or the great mastermind (or, as I'm going to call him, the Goddamn Muslim) put torches inside a giant tree, moved them carefully away from the walls, and then set up puzzles involving lighting them.

Which I guess is why he gets beaten by a ten-year-old boy.

The thing I could never figure out is why there's a Dungeon Map of Jabu-Jabu's Belly. I guess it's another of those "You're not supposed to think about this, idiot!" moments.

To the Zora, charting their deity's innards is a kind of worship.

I admit that it bothered me a lot when this game came out. All was good when I heard the nice, downbeat variation on the main theme in Majora's Mask, though. But you'll note Nintendo hasn't made the same mistake twice. They had the foresight to put the Legend of Zelda theme in its entirety in the intro to Wind Waker and the credits to Twilight Princess.

Isn't it funny to think that this game was considered the pinnacle of graphical prowess back in 1998? Nowadays, it really shows its age visually. I never could get into the game, either, mostly because inverse-aiming with an analog stick feels about as natural and intuitive as typing with boxing gloves on*, and about as accurate at times too.

Still, it's not a bad game. Not as great as some call it, if you ask me, and it definitely can't hold a candle to Twilight Princess in my book (I can already hear the Ocarina of Time Defense Force gathering...), but it was definitely an impressive first effort. I can't see how they could really have done better than this with the hardware they worked on, and if that's not a testament to its relative quality, I don't know what is.

* - Strong Bad was excluded from that survey, obviously.

I found it rather ugly even back then, honestly -- especially the glaring 2D objects in otherwise 3D environments (the "walls" of Hyrule Field particularly come to mind). Just two years later, Majora's Mask was a phenomenal improvement.

Sure, but I can still see why I found it so beautiful back then. I do find it a bit difficult to play now, though, because of the low (but impressively stable) framerate. Still, remember Navi's first person flight through Kokiri Village at the start? So amazing.

Yeah, it's really amazing how much better Majora's Mask was graphically. (Granted, it used the Expansion Pack, but still.) Take a look at the Bottles: In Ocarina, they look like jagged, crystal-shaped shards of glass. In Majora, they look like... well, bottles.

What ages this game for me isn't the graphics, it's the general N64 lag to every movement. It's hard for me to go back to Ocarina, though I still hold it in high regard for its innovations.

The graphics might not be so great now, but the art design is. One of my favourite views in videogames is standing on the fence by the Shadow Temple looking at the graveyard. Particularly good in rain.

Something to keep in mind: I went into the PS1/N64 era horribly spoiled. I was a PC gamer from 1991 to 1998 (yes, I missed the 16-bit console era entirely; not like I wanted to, either). By the time I got into consoles again back in 1999, I'd already seen the likes of Half-Life.

So it's not surprising that N64 and PS1 graphics weren't wowing me, or that Ocarina of Time failed to grab my attention with nifty camera tricks like Navi's flight to the village. I'd already seen stuff like that done as far back as 1996 on the PC.

True, the fliythrough probably wouldn't do anything much for kids who'd already gone through the train journey that kicks off Half-Life, an impressive moment in its own way.

Well, they only would have seen the train sequence four days earlier, so it might still leave an impression.

Episode 3: Leavin’ Home Ain’t Easy…

Heeding the Great Deku Tree’s dying words, Blondie decides to leave Kokiri Village to pursue a career in Spelunking and Princess Saving.



It appears that the Great Deku Tree’s death has not gone unnoticed by the Kokiri. Mido blames us, mostly because he’s a giant douche. But whatever; I’m not concerned with small fries like Mido. The Nose is out there and he needs to be stopped!



After heading through the exit in the western portion of the village, Blondie is stopped by his pseudo-girlfriend, Saria.



[/foreshadowing]





Saria gives Blondie an oddly shaped yam with holes in it to remind him of their friendship.



It’s apparently some kind of yam-instrument called an “ocarina”. If you were like me, you’d never heard of it before this game either.

The Ocarina is integral to OoT’s puzzle solving. Once the Ocarina is brought up, a music bar appears. Notes can be played by hitting the C-buttons and A button in different patterns. You can also bend the pitch of a note by moving the control stick, which serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

As the game goes on, we will learn certain “songs” that serve different purposes. A song is a preset pattern that, once played, will produce certain effects. Before the next update is done, we’ll learn our first song: Zelda’s Lullaby. This song will help identify us as having a connection to the Royal Family.

It will also repair signs that I cut in half, which is good because I cut signs in half at every possible opportunity.

But that’s just the beginning. By the end of the game, we’ll learn a multitude of songs which will enable us to warp around Hyrule. There’s a song that enables us to manipulate the flow of time, summon a horse, and more!



Saria continues to look as though she needs some Pepto Bismol, and Blondie runs off towards…



Hyrule Field serves as the overworld we know and love from older Zelda titles. One of the main criticisms aimed at OoT/Hyrule Field in general is that it’s more barren than previous Zelda title’s overworlds. This is undeniably true. However, Hyrule Field brings a whole new set of features to the table instead.

First of all, it’s worth noting that Hyrule Field still has a fair amount of secret areas to find in it. It may not look like the overworlds of old, but there are still secrets to be found here. Secondly, Hyrule Field is a massive hub area that takes multiple in-game days to cross. It delivered a sense of scale that simply could not be found in any other game. Now that we have Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, OoT’s overworld seems tiny in comparison. But at the time, it was (and still is) easy to get lost in an overworld as massive as this one. Lastly, while it’s true that there are very few enemies in the overworld…is that really a bad thing? Did anyone really enjoy having to hunt for hearts before entering a dungeon because they’d gotten badly damaged on the way there? Did anyone really enjoy having traveling from Point A to Point B take twice as long and/or be twice as dangerous because of the enemies you encountered?

OoT takes a “quality not quantity” approach to enemy encounters. Rather than inundate the player with enemies in the overworld, enemies are primarily found in dungeons and intermediary areas like Death Mountain Trail and Lake Hylia. The overworld exists primarily as a large hub to explore, and each outlying area serves its own unique purpose and has its own feel. It’s a different approach, and one that I enjoy far more than older Zelda’s constant barrage of mindless enemies and no clear distinction between areas.

After taking a few steps into the field, a mysterious stranger appears!

Not the One From Harry Potter



This is Kaepora Gaebora, a talking owl of some sort. At certain points in the game, Kaepora will show up and offer Blondie advice. He never properly introduces himself as Kaepora Gaebora, but certain items called Gossip Stones tell us that this is his name later in the game. These Gossip Stones also mention who Kaepora really is, but it’d be a shame to ruin it for you now.

This is not Kaepora’s first appearance in a Zelda game. In Link’s Awakening, an unnamed owl appeared to help Link in a similar fashion. This owl helped Link awaken the Wind Fish, and was later revealed to be the guardian of the Wind Fish. Of course, the rest of the game is revealed to have been a dream that Link had while floating adrift in the ocean…but considering that most of the enemies in LA are born from Link’s previous adventures, does that mean that Link’s Awakening comes chronologically after OoT? Is the owl in LA a representation of Link’s memories of meeting Kaepora in Hyrule as a child in OoT?

For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Zelda games do follow a specific timeline. Series creator and all around Nerd God Shigeru Miyamoto and current head of the Zelda series Eiji Aonuma have said so multiple times. The only real question is just what the hell is that timeline? Nintendo has not made the official timeline public and the issue continues to cause debate amongst the Zelda fanbase to this day. I briefly mentioned before that there’s almost no way I can finish this LP without addressing the timeline question (especially considering OoT’s place in the timeline), but let’s hold off on that for now.

Geez, that huge tangent just because of a damn owl. I need to learn how to edit, huh?

Anyway, Kaepora gives us some words of encouragement and points us in the direction of Hyrule Castle.

The Dangers of Hyrule Field



Hey, a pineapple!



Um…maybe not. This is actually OoT’s take on a Peahat, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t extremely brutal. Peahats are actually quite easy to defeat once you have the Boomerang…but we don’t. There’s no reason to ever fight one except for doing it just for the hell of it, so we’ll be running away for now.









After following the path towards Hyrule Castle, OoT’s day/night cycle begins to rear its ugly head. It’s impossible to get to Hyrule Castle from Kokiri Village in one day, so we’re stuck waiting outside the gates of Hyrule Castle Town until morning.



At night time, Hyrule Field becomes a playground for Stalchildren. Stalchildren are fairly easy to defeat (one Jump Attack or two regular attacks will do them in) and spawn in groups of two.



After defeating several groups of Stalchildren, a larger Stalchild appears. Although being twice the size of Blondie and requiring almost a whole night’s worth of Stalchild-slaying to cause him to appear, there is nothing special about the giant Stalchild. The only thing different about him is that after killing him, Blondie is guaranteed to find a blue rupee (which is worth five rupees). I guess that’s something, right?



Morning finally comes and the gate opens.

Protip: walk up the chains of the gate and jump towards the middle of the bridge. There are actually three red rupees hidden at the top of the gate! You’ll need to jump from each side to get all three, but it’s a quick way to get some money really early in the game.

By the way, I never really explained what rupees are, huh? Oops. Well, rupees are the currency that is used in Hyrule. Green rupees are worth one, blue are worth five, red are worth twenty, purple are worth fifty, and gold are worth two hundred. Later installments add an almost ridiculous number of rupee colors but OoT is limited to these five. There’s technically a hidden, sixth type…but we’ll talk about that later.



Immediately after entering Hyrule Castle Town, you’ll notice a door to the north. Inside you’ll find this room full of pots. If you’re ever desperately low on money, you can always come here and smash pots over and over until you have a full wallet. Another Gold Skulltula can be found in one of the boxes at the north end of the room. After killing it and maxing out his wallet, Blondie leaves and heads west towards the main portion of Hyrule Castle Town.

Let’s Take a Tour of Castle Town!

Hyrule Castle Town serves as a hub for Blondie’s adventures. Multiple quests can be undertaken here, and supplies can be picked up as well…at a significant mark-up, of course.



1. Running Guy: A random villager. Hyrule Castle Town is full of random villagers like this who don’t have anything to offer other than just being there.

2. Crowds of Buyers: Another Crowd can be found at another stall in Castle Town. These characters don’t do anything except constantly bicker over items all day. They’re mostly just there to give the town some “flavor”, like Running Guy.

3. Laughing Guys: These characters serve as the unofficial Town Criers of Castle Town. They don’t really do much. You should be noticing a pattern with this first screenshot: nothing in this section of Castle Town matters.



4. Shooting Gallery: Finally, something useful! As a child, Blondie can take his Slingshot into the Shooting Gallery and play a target shooting minigame.



This monstrously lipped freak runs the gallery. His face still upsets me to this day.



Blondie is given 20 Deku Seeds and instructed to shoot rupees as they appear. It can be a bit difficult towards the end, but it’s completely worth going to the trouble to beat this thing.



See? Now that we have a bigger seed bag, we have more Seeds available to use at one time. There’s still one more seed bag upgrade to get, but we’re not quite at that point in the game yet. Later, once we get the Fairy Bow, we’ll be heading back to this same freak to do this over with the Bow. That will get us our first Quiver upgrade.

5. This is the Happy Mask Shop. The salesman here will let us borrow masks and then sell them to people. After selling four masks, we’re given access to a very special mask…but we’ll talk more about this in an update or two.

6. This is Hyrule Castle, our destination.

7. This is a girl. Hmm. She looks a bit out of place. Maybe we should talk to her?



8. This is the Temple of Time. We have no need to go here now, but we’ll be visiting here quite often in the future.

9. This is the Potion Shop. Once we have a bottle, we’ll be able to come here and purchase potions and other bottle-able items. There is no need to ever visit here. You’re a god damn fool if you pay for potions.

10. This is the Item Shop. Again, you’re a fool if you buy anything here. The only purpose for coming here would be to buy a replacement Hylian Shield if yours gets eaten by a Like-Like, but that’s about it.



11. This is the Treasure Chest Mini-game, which is only open at night. It’s essentially unwinnable until you learn how to cheat much later in the game.

12. This is access to the Back Alley of Castle Town. There are a few houses and one particular quest can be started here. There’s also a shop that sells Bombchus, but we’ll talk about that much later. Bombchus are kind of useless anyway so…you know, whatever.

13. This is the Bombchu Bowling Alley.



It, uh, isn’t open yet.

Not to be Confused with Marin and Tarin



Really? That might be important if your dog were somehow to go missing! Well, enough window shopping and chit-chatting; let’s move on.



Blondie is a very courageous youth. You can tell because he’s willing to hit on complete strangers even though he's only 10. I guess it helps that this stranger is also 10...but whatever. This is Malon, a young lass from Lon Lon Ranch. They have milk there! Blondie’s love life is going to have to wait unfortunately...we’ve got a kingdom to save!





Just after entering the area, an upside down-headed Kaepora stops Blondie and explains how the passage of time works in certain areas. In the area in front of Hyrule Castle, time flows normally…but inside a town like Kakariko Village/Hyrule Castle Town/Kokori Village, time stands still. Thanks for the lesson!

Blondie is turned away at the gates of Hyrule Castle. It is possible to begin sneaking into the castle, but first let’s head back to Castle Town. Upon arriving, it becomes apparent that Malon is gone. Hmm…well, let’s turn around and head back.



Somehow, Malon crossed paths with us and we didn’t notice. Go figure. This is one of the few sections in this game that makes absolutely no sense to me.





Before leaving, Malon gives us an egg for no clearly discernible reason. Again, go figure.

As unlikely as it may seem, we now have everything we need in order to break into Hyrule Castle and visit the Princess. The next section of the game is fairly story intensive, so rather than inundate you all with text I’m going to cut this one off right here.

Next Time on A Brief History of Time:

After doing his best Solid Snake impersonation, Blondie meets with Princess Zelda. It seems that the Deku Tree was right; all is not well in Hyrule! The Nose is up to no good, and it’s up to two precocious youngsters to save the day!

I like how the Stalchildren only appear if you travel off the roads, just like in Zelda II.


No in-game purpose, but allows you to play actual songs, which was a popular thing to do when the game was new.


Really? It's just a big circle with a ranch in the middle and exits along the perimeter.


Spoilers: He's not Rauru.


Link's Awakening is a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, and ALttP Link isn't the same person as Ocarina Link. It's undeniable that Kaepora was inspired by the LA owl, but that doesn't mean there's an actual in-universe relationship between them.


I think you're meant to go up there as the bridge goes upright at night, in which case you just walk across its edge to get the Rupees. It's just that they're still there in the daytime, too.


She also appears if you get caught trying to sneak around the guards, which is probably, again, what's "supposed" to happen. In that case, you can just assume she came in behind you.

I'm lovin' this, Alix. Keep going!